Sunday, 22 May 2016

OOTD | A Ray of Sunshine | Theo's Christening

Today I'm posting about a very special outfit of the day- what I wore for my son Theo’s christening, and I'll also show you what he wore as the star of the show!

I had a very last minute change with my outfit, which isn't like me as I normally plan these things out in way too much detail.

Originally, I chose a blush pink lace midi dress from Self Portrait which was super girlie and not my usual style, but it just spoke to me somehow.

If you've seen my other outfit posts, you'll know that my style is generally pretty monochrome, tailored and not frilly at all!

However, when the dress came, although it is completely beautiful, it turned out to be a no go. The top of the dress is a bodice style with spaghetti straps. As I'm still feeding Theo, I have a little more up top than usual and the overall effect was too distractingly busty, especially for a church ceremony!

Undeterred, I ordered a cream cropped jumper to layer over it, but sadly when that arrived the two pieces just didn't go together at all.

It was full on wardrobe melt down time. With no time to order anything else or make it to the shops, I was stood going through my wardrobe and my dressing room pulling things off the rails and praying!

The day was saved when I came across this beautiful cocoon shift dress. I bought it for a wedding but then I fell pregnant so I'd never worn it.

It was important to us to have a day to celebrate our little son. We wanted to have a ceremony to welcome him into the world officially, and I like him having godparents, because I think that gives those people a special bond with him.

I hope they'll always be there to support and guide him as he goes through life.

So, onto the outfit:

‘Maya’ cocoon dress | Whistles

Cream and neon tweed biker jacket | Zara

‘Amerie’ pointed sparkle flats | Dune

Grey snakeskin clutch | Kurt Geiger

Crystal and pearl ear climbers | H&M

I love this dress so much, it was brilliant to finally get to wear it.
The cut is so flattering with the gently draped cocoon shape, especially
as my tummy still isn't flat. It felt really comfortable and elegant to
wear.

The colour is unusual and so bright, but I like to think
it brought a ray of sunshine to a day that turned out to be quite grey
and rainy!

However, I am thinking about getting the dress dyed
black now - I know I'll get far more wear out of it that way. I liked
the shape so much I looked to see if they did it in black as well but
they don't.

The bright yellow colour did tie in with the neon
fibres in my tweed biker though. I have such a huge collection of little
boucle jackets, it's actually a bit ridiculous, but I can't seem to
resist them. This one is quite old, but I liked the more structured
shape with the looser dress.

On my feet I wore these beautiful
flats. They are a mesmerising multi coloured shimmer, there's sort of
gold and silver and rainbows in there! When I saw these, it was a
situation where I just needed them in my life!

Obviously flats are ideal with a baby to cart around as well and they worked well with the shape of the dress.

We didnt get to take many pictures on the day, as we were too busy with
the ceremony and hosting the party afterwards, but here is one my dad
took of Theo taking the initiative and dunking himself in the font
before the priest got there!

And here is what Theo wore:

Linen romper suit with pie crust collar | Mayoral

Finding an outfit for Theo was surprisingly hard. Mostly the outfits you
can find for little boys for christenings are little three piece suits,
but I didn't want that. It just felt like dressing him as a mini adult,
when the whole point of the ceremony is that he's new to the world. But
then at eight months he really seemed too old for a traditional robe,
which is what I wanted at first.

So I felt stuck for quite a
while until I found this beautiful little linen romper, which is from a
Spanish baby wear label. I liked that it's very traditional, almost
Victorian looking. Very much something that Prince George might wear!

Things did not go a hundred per cent to plan. We had wanted a garden tea
party after the ceremony but the great British weather had other ideas.
At the moment it's hot and sunny one day and miserable the next and
unfortunately it was grey and rainy.

We ended up moving everything inside but there was plenty of cake, Pimms and fizz so hopefully people were okay with it!

It
was incredibly touching to see all our friends and family showing their
love for Theo and he's so lucky to be surrounded by such great people.

He had some very amazing gifts as well including lots of money and gift cards (I think he may well be richer than me at the moment!), but what I loved the most were all the little personal touches people had thought of for him:

A personalised book of nursery rhymes with his name hidden in all the illustrations...

This very cool suction bowl and spoon set made of bamboo - no more spilled food! This is especially good as Theo loves to throw his bowl off the highchair tray...

I mentioned I wanted more books for Theo so he got some lovely stories, including 'Where The Wild Things Are' and this lovely 'The Tiger Who Came To Tea' book with a little mug...

He got this beautiful Spode christening cup decorated with Aesop's Fables, including the Tortoise and the Hare..

I love this beautiful set of all the Beatrix Potter stories in a keepsake chest...

We were touched with this beautiful wooden star that has a saying on it that Theo can always carry with him...

And this solid metal nameplate sign that was made for him by his Godfather, Richard - how awesome is that?

So he had an amazing day despite the rainy weather and we felt so blessed that we have such incredible family and friends to share things like this with.